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Biometrics in the Workplace
ryth writes "The Globe and Mail reports that McDonald's Restaurants and a few other companies in Canada have introduced palm-scanning technologies for employees. Workers are now expected to 'sign' in and out using their palm prints to record the exact time of arrival and the identity of the employee. Quoted in the article Jorn Nordmann, president of S.M. Products, was blunt about why he installed a hand scanner at his fish-processing plant in Delta, B.C. 'If you want to control a whole bunch of people, it's the only way to go.' It seems that some of the most underpaid and undervalued workers are starting to be treated no better than the animals they are frying up." Except for the frying part.
While not as high-tech why not just stick with a punch card or swipe card. Sure you can get a few people who will punch in for someone every once and a while or something what's the big deal. This just sounds like a gigantic waste of money to me.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Coming soon to a population center near you...
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
that people wash their hands before coming to work, because if everyone is putting their hand on the scanner, there could definitely be some health issues.
Crushing dreams at the speed of sarcasm
Check me if I'm wrong Sammy, but I don't see how making employees sign in and out is all that terrible. Would it make people feel better if these employees pushed a button to sign in instead of having their palms scanned?
This is old business with a new timecard. Some businesses (people, really) watch the one- and two-minute differences with no forgiveness.
Is it so significant that a palm scanner is being used now? It prevents deception - it's unlikely you'll cut off a hand for your friend to clock you in early. Other than that, it means you can't lose your timecard (major accidents excepted). Oh, and you might want to wash your hands more...
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Talking call centers which I know a bit about, it always seems to be the case that the lower you pay someone the more control the employer wants over them.
... or a nosy receptionist.
What am I missing here - they are paying for labour, so why shouldn't they make sure people start on time?
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
When your employer is paying for your time, they have a right to measure how much of it they are getting. Just like you have a right to put that bag of sugar on the scales and check that it really is 1kg.
Seems reasonable enough to me, anyway.
If what I assume is correct, there is no reason for McDonalds to not use the hand/fingerprint data in some other way, if they wanted to, for example checking for criminal records, as mentioned in the article. They say they won't use the data for anything else, but they have also said their food is healthy. Would employees have the right to be informed if McDonalds suddenly used the hand/fingerprint data for something other than clocking in and out? Plus, it is not impossible for this data to be stolen and then abused. Who would then be responsible, under Canadian law? If employees have weaker protection under the law, does this mean that employers aren't required to secure the personal data of its employees the same way an e-tailer is required to the secure personal data of its customers?
Another problem is what happens when this technology becomes mainstream, and used in most workplaces. It is understandably used in workplaces where security is an issue, and for now it's only McDonalds and a handful of other places that do not have the same security concerns as say, a nuclear power plant. The more use, the more potential for abuse. Workers need to have their rights secured before these devices are used. I just hope Manitoba (and the other provinces lacking strong provincial privacy legislation) wake up and create new laws to protect the people!
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
This is a completely valid viewpoint. My main question is how is this an invasion of privacy? I wouldn't have a problem scanning in my hand to check in to work -- but it seems that a lot of people do. I guess letting companies having biometric information could be the beginning of a long and slippery slope, but I can't really see a worst case scenario... someone care to visualize it for me?
In other news, this would meet a lot greater resistance if McDonald's allowed its workers to form unions. The restaurants have some of the worst turnover because the working conditions are abismal and the company squashes any attempts at its workers to form unions. More information can be found in the book Fast Food Nation which I definitely recommend as a good read -- it goes into worker treatment at both fast food restaurants as well as meat packing plants and the entire fast food industry as a whole, from advertising to production to health issues. I recommend as a read although be warned, you may not want to go back to McDonald's again. I haven't gone back. But that's because their food tastes like crap.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
And swipe access to some of the internal doors. If you haven't swiped in at the entrance you can't get through the internal doors, it's a kind of login system. It may well be used for time monitoring but it's main purpose is security, they also use it to produce a checklist of employees who are in the building in the event of a disaster like a fire.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Ain't that like management? Check the employee in/out times with an atomic clock, work out the overtime with a sundial...
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
I'm not sure what issue taken with this is. Everyone who works a regular job is expected to show up on time and stay the duration of the day. Many jobs have some kind of time card system in place to help monitor this. That the system is more automated and exact would only be of concern to those who wish to cheat the system.
I work for a public utility. We had the hand punch system years ago. ( I always threatened to make a rubber hand, but never got around to it. ) Now we have the finger print reader instead. Overall, it tends to help both sides, since employees can often prove they were on site even if their supervisors weren't sure.
As a side note, biometric data can leak. Our finger print database is intentionally stored at a slightly lower resolution than the federal standard. The reason is that if we kept government quality information, we'd be required to surrender a copy of that information to the government. Now that's scary.
His 50 employees would often "buddy-punch," ... "They're typical workers," Mr. Nordmann said. "It's not nice work. You have a lot of turnover. You have them one week, and the next week they're gone. You can't tell the faces any more."
What a wonderful view of workers. Sort of Victorian workhouse style. He could always try treating his staff well enough that they don't cheat the system or quit all the time.
At a couple jobs I've worked I was expected to punch in and out. When I arrived, I took a card and put it in a stamper, same whenever I left. Was used to track my hours. Seems like a perfectly reasonable request by an employer, that they might want to know what hours you worked.
However time card have problems. They are easily damaged, since they are just paper. Also it is possible to get confused, and grab the wrong card, I did that on one occasion. However more important to an employer, another employee could punch a friend in, making it appear as if they were there.
This eliminates problems and just streamlines everything. You scan you plam, it knows you are you and clocks you in. Scan again to clock out. No confusion and no practical way to fake it.
This in no way limits your privacy your rights or anything else. You employer has a right to know when you are working for them. And guess what? If the system is lax, people will abuse it. Like now I work at a university and all hourly positions (which is only student positions really) simply fill out a timebook once a week, which is then signed by their supervisor. So what happens? You guessed it, people cheat. A student will show up to work 15 minutes late, take a long lunch, and slip out 30 minutes eairly yet still report a full work day.
It works the other way too. Makes it much harder for a company to screw you. Say you need to work late. They decide they don't want to pay you for that time to try to claim you weren't there. Hard for them to say if there is a palm scan record of you leaving. Much easier to say if there is no record, or just a punch card.
We have swipe card doors at work. It's nice since it's much more convienent than carrying 50 different keys around since it seems like every lock is keyed differently.
However, just like with keys, and even more frequently, people forget their card. I have a cube near the door to our room and I'm ALWAYS getting up to let someone in that forgot their card. No big deal, since it's just door access. Someone else can let them in or they can borrow a card. Bigger deal if it is needed to clock in, means they have to go back home.
Personally, I'd really like to see biometrics more. It'd just hard to loose. For high security areas/things you need other authentication, of course (like a passocde and/or keycard) in addtion but for most things a simple print is good enough. I've lost my wallet, I've lost my keys, but I've never lost my hand.
We installed a fingerscanning device a couple of years ago for signing in and out of work. The system works by allowing a person to be late at for work or going out early for up to 7 hours per month. After that, we penalize their salary for every extra minute after the 7 hours. Since then, we have covered the cost of the devices from all the salary penalities.
Learned this from a /. post a long time ago and it has guided me in our company's quest for a 2nd factor of authentication. We don't all have the same body parts and a biometric solution needs to work for 100% of the users.
It wan't biometrics but it wasa so-called "smart card". In the early 90's I was stationed aboard the USS Enterprise when the Navy decided to test a smartcard system. A small strip on your ID card contained identifying information. We were required to swipe as we came and left the worplace. Afer the first month big brother handed our reports by division what the average hours spent per week wer. Afterthe second month they were identifying to the workcenter level. Before it got to the per-person level the system came to an abrupt end. I'm pretty sure some phonecalls to elected officials got the program sidelined. You really don't know how little you matter to your employer till they consider you litte more than a tiny statistic.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
...especially since the #1 problem with timecards, according to a friend who manages a small manufacturing business, is that employees regularly clock each other in/out as favors.
So lets get this straight- it prevents theft and reduces peer pressure("Hey bob, clock me in early tomorrow, will ya? The kid needs new braces.") It involves absolutely nothing intrusive(I fail to see how storing the dimensions of your hand is intrusive) and is merely an improvement on a system that's been in use for almost a CENTURY.
What's the problem here? That biometrics are evil?
Please help metamoderate.
My major concern in these rigid employee control devices is not so much a privacy invasion, as a reduction in trust and spontaneity. If people don't feel like they can cheat or bend the system a little (sneak in late, take an extra 15 min on lunch), they focus alot more on how much work controls their life.
A little workplace entropy distracts from the oppressive order of day to day work.
For many reasons:
1) Lower pay jobs tend to be hourly. Well if employers are paying by the hour, they want to maje sure they get what they pay for. Likewise by the hour jobs generally include OT pay, which they don't want to pay if they can avoid it. Higher pay jobs are more often salaried so it doesn't matter as much. Sure you may come into work 15 minutes late but you also may be asked to work all weekend at no extra pay.
2) Lower pay jobs tend to be more time oriented, less results oriented. Like McDonalds. It is important that you are there for the time they expect. Why? Well because at any time customers may come in and require your services and you need to be there fore that. Much less important as a software developer. It's just important that you get the software done, regardless of if that happens 0900-1700 or 0000-0800.
3) People tend to care less about lower pay jobs. If you make $5.15 an hour, how movtivated are you to give it your all, really? I know I wasn't. I would have been perfectly happy to slip out if I could. There's quite a bit more motivation if you make $100,000/year to keep your job.
Not saying it's all justified or anything, but there are legit reasons why an employeer would want to keep a closer eye on a lower payed employee.
Its obvious that there are lots of folks here who have never had to lead a team of people to do anything, much less work. Not that I am holding up McD's as a paragon of virtue (they aren't) but this is about as sinister as when a former neigbor of mine let me know that the US Post Office changes the stamps in circulation as part of a world wide code to communicate with the angels living here on earth. :-)
In any environment where you have high turn over finding a way to track workers is critical, especially in low margin businesses like fast food. Business implements changes out of (hopefully intelligent) self interest, not part some conspiracy to "control" workers. Now, do there need to be safeguards in place to make sure corporations don't share biometrics as well as other personal data, absolutely. However, American corporations are so afraid of being sued most only confirm employement dates of former employees, rather than telling the truth, even when the former employee deserves a negative review. So I find it hard to imagine the circumstance where some minimum wage worker's handprint is so valuable that a corporation is willing to part with the data, and take the risk of a high profile lawsuit. The only real exception to this is of course, the government. There is a potential for abuse there, and if I were a potential employee I would like to know what the employer's policy on information requests from law enforcement looks like, ie do they require a subpoena etc. Also how long will the company keep the information would be something I would ask.
I've peripherally dealt with a few biometric identification systems deployments, and there are three major factors to consider:
-False positives (%)
-False negatives (%)
-Acceptance
The first two are objectively measurable over time. The latter covers peoples' reluctance to, say, put a DNA probe in their mouth, or put their eye to a retinal scanner for fear of catching pinkeye, or whatnot.
Biometrics themselves can be used to _identify_ someone, but relying on them as a catch-all solution to _authenticate_ is lame (authentication is performed by a combination of what you know, what you have, or what you are--think ATM card + PIN code.) Biometric systems are, under certain circumstances, a good complement to another ID mechanism, no different, for example, than using a GSM card for your mobile phone.
That said, I don't like biometric systems for something like timesheet checking. Aside from the fact that it's undignified and ham-handed (looks great on powerpoint!) there is the danger of non-repudiation in the case of a false positive. Most technical types understand this concet, but do you really think your average manager will believe Joe Frycook that he was present, if for some reason the handprint scanner had a glitch?
The other thing I take issue with is the possibility of a leak or misuse of sensitive data. A time card or ID is a physical object, usually limited to a specific use. However, if an employer has, say, a perfect thumbprint scan of mine, what's stopping him from sharing it? From using it in other, less legitimate areas (hiring a private security firm to check my laptop to see if I'm letting my girlfriend use it, whatever.) Sound paranoid?
It bugs me to see responses along the lines of "if you've nothing to hide, why are you concerned?" I'm concerned because, first, I'm a bit of a naive idealist and believe that people should be treated like human beings, not innately distrusted. And second, I've seen some fairly catastrophic examples of what can go wrong with any technology.
That said, there's a sociological theory that every human being has an innate tendency to want to sabotage authority in some small way--riding the bus without a ticket, cheating on their taxes, etc. My own insignificant little tactics involve trying to make factor #3, acceptance, lower for biometric ID systems--sneeze on eyeball scanners, smear boogers on hand readers, stick gum on camera lenses, whatever.
A few years ago, some German state had to hire private security guards to watch speed cameras, because the locals were taking shotguns to 'em. Cost them a lot of money, and sent a bit of a signal. I'm no anarchist, but occasionally the yay-biometrics mob could use a bit of the same medicine.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
First off, your employer has a right to track your hours. This is a good thing so long as they don't start nickel, diming and whining when your a minute or two late. Biometrics would also be a good thing when combined with your credit card. Pretty hard to fake a handprint or thumbprint. Biometrics could also prevent us sysadmins from constantly resetting passwords. If we used a thumbprint for the pasword, it would be hard to duplicate and hard for users sharing signons (my biggest beef now).
BTW, Fast food isn't the only place the beef about being a minute or two late. I once worked for Meijer, a family owned chain of gorcery/superstores and they would chew you out whenever your one minute late into or out of work, breaks and lunches. I don't know if tehy stil do this, but when I worked, Meijer had a saying...the run for 1. They wanted to have only 1 percent overhead. That meant you sold a lot of damaged goods (at a SLIGHLTLY reduced price) as long as the packaging wasn't mangled too bad. I thought it was nuts and eventually they did drop it realizing it was impossible to do this. Nickel and diming employees regarding their time is just counterproductive and will result in you loosing a employee who may have just had a bad commute or a bad morning wrestling with the kids and is normally on time and a very good worker. I ain't saying you should not punish repeat offenders or even defining a standard, but if someone is late say once in 3 months, I think that is pretty good! Another thing that could be done is for every minute your late, you stay over that many minutes. Also, use overlapping schedules. If you schedule so tight that you can't afford to have people that are late, that's YOUR problem, not your employee's.
Gorkman
You are grossly underestimating the allure of metrics. One of today's management fads is to reduce everything to numbers. If it can't be easily measured, it must not be important. Managers are told to set measurable goals in their performance planning. This forces them to look for things that can be measured, whether they are material to the success of the business or not. Joe Shmoe being five minutes late may not be important. Joe Shmoe screwing up a metric that is one of his manager's performance goals is a major problem, as it directly affects his manager's performance evaluation and status in the company.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
IIRC, a law was recently passed which allows the FBI to collect a business' records without a subpeona. Which means that if your employer has your fingerprints, so does the FBI.
Someone could very easily lose their anonymity by simply working for the wrong employer. The Burlington Northern example is a case in point - IIRC, employees were forced to undergo mandatory genetic testing; those with a genetic tendency toward carpal tunnel syndrome were fired. Now the FBI has access to the genetic information for every one of BN's employees who was tested.
To be honest, the confidentiality promises a company makes mean nothing. Every company has a disclaimer stating that they will divulge information to comply with law enforcement and some (such as Ebay) make it a point to market this service to law enforcement.
Our lives are no longer private. If it is in a company database somewhere, the FBI now has access to it. The only safe option is to not turn over information you don't want the government to have to anyone, for any reason.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I remember that a Belgian athlete (judo) could not enter the Olympic village at the Atlanta (?) games because he had injured his hand and it was swollen. The palm recognition thing refused to grant him access.. :-(
History matters..
Yep, that's right, not just coyotes and sheepdogs.
Seriously, I know with timecards, there's the problem of getting someone else to clock you in. Not many better ways to prevent this than biometrics. Michael needs to manage people sometime, maybe he'll figure this out. Let me explain:
You see, the old trick is come in early and clock you and your friend in. Leave early, then your friend clocks both of you out. The company looses productivity, increases prices, passes the cost on to the customer. Everytime someone cheats a company, the company doesn't pay the cost, the customer does. Biometric scans would prevent this as well as keeping recently fired employees out.
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And they realise they have to draw up new regulations that prevents anyone with extensive acid burns to their hands being employed, errr, maybe.
Don't be so quick to jump the gun on this one. Expecting people to be honest is somehow less than human? What about the honest guys who see everyone else ripping off the system, while he has a clear conscience? This will only validate those of us in society who play by the rules, and hopefully stop those who do break the rules. The only problem I would have with such a system would be if it linked up to government databases, or something like that. I would not be surprised given "security" companies' stances lately of profits over privacy. This practice would also, inadvertantly, be able to defeat fraud by management, like cutting people's hours. Most of the time, technology should not be needed, because all you need to do is have communication in place between all members of management. Example "why is Joe-Bob still clocked in?" "he shouldn't be, he left at noon".
I hate sigs.
minimum wage in BC is currently $6CDN or 2.6 pounds for the "training wage" for the first 500h(?). You get people on the bus handing out flyers for the site 6buckssucks.com. One thing that factories have learned is that people have a higher moral when they don't have to use punch cards. Now this probably won't give much better results than punch cards but I'd think that the moral result would be even worse.
now you could argue that hey if they're working at McD's they're probably tranisitory and often with no experience. Sure it'll help with bad employees but it'll also get rid of the good employees a lot faster.
I sounds like they're getting the shaft twice for working at McD's. The difference is that at the fish processing plant they meantion the wage is upto $21ph CDN or 9.1 pounds. He's worried about the bottom line. McD's looses more in left over food than they would in having employees coming 15min late.
either way it sounds like the use of biometrics in vancouver bars to Tracking Patrons.... Go Canada and for anyone having to go through this process, rub jelly on your hands and you'll get a lot of faults in hand reads. The more the faults occur, the more managers will get pissed off that 30min a day or longer is spent getting the machine to work.
The issue with swipe cards, that palm scanners eliminates, is that people often find ways to cheat the system. Certain individuals will get their friends to swipe or clock them in before their arrival at work. This was a very common problem with time clocks where someone would be late for work and they would call and have a coworker clock them in on-time even though the person didn't actually show up for work until an hour later. That's theft. This system prevents that possibillity as they cannot easily fake the palm scan. This saves the company a lot of money that it would otherwise be defrauded of.
I am aware of a very large produce packing company in south Florida that installed a similar system several years ago for tracking employee hours for the mostly migrant pickers and packagers. Prior to this system it was not uncommon for a quarter of the staff to not show up for work at all yet, still collect a paycheck for a full week's work. The companies facilities are very low tech overall, due to the nature of their business so, it was very surprising to see such a high tech time clock there.
In this particular case they used a number of hand scanners that measured the geometry of the persons hand for biometric identification. The company also found that the process of clocking in and out was much faster with this system as it illiminated the search for the time card on the wall and the examination of the timecard after it was punched. With the hand scanner the worker simply placed their hand on the scanner and when the light turned green it meant that they had successfully been identified and they moved on. Instead of taking one or more minutes for an individual to clock in, it now takes less than 15 seconds. This adds up when you start talking about crews in the hundreds.
I am in the time and attendance field. My company sells and I setup biometric clocks along with regular clocks. The hand recognition clock we use is made by a company called recognition systems. You people are too damned paranoid. This system, nor the thumb one we use does NOT take your handprint, or thumbprint. You can really tell if you actually look at the handpunch device. The bottom that you are placing your palm on is an optical reflecting surface (just like the old optical mice). It has these little pegs on the inside and it measures the thickness of your fingers and the length. The thumb system that measures the thickness of the ridges and amount of ridges in your thumb and just record that. It does NOT store your fingerprints, nor does the prior store a handprint. You guys need to RESEARCH what you are complaining about before you complain about it. And this was a poor job of research by the journalist that wrote this article. But they have an excuse, they are uninformed liberals, and definitley not in the technical field to even understand how technical things work. Most of you guys are in the technical field.
I had an job at a popular burger chain in high school, and while yes, there where a lot of people there that were 'just passing through' as in getting an education and exploiting flexible hours, there were also a fair share of individuals who had 'reached their full potential' shall we say. It's the nature of the fact that you're making minimum wage. At the time, we were required to punch in/out by keying our SSN into the registers. (Which might make people cringe, but your employer needs anyway to pay you). This is really no different and arguably more secure. (How many ways can I currently use you palm scan to steal your identity?)
On the animal note... I can draw more references to the average aptitude needed to operate a fry machine than I can to the way people are treated. That and if your treated unfairly at one burger joint, move your damn cheese. Half the places out there required simply that you speak English (an even this might be waved) and that you are breathing/have a pulse.
When they start taking blood samples ala Gattica or feeding worker rendered coworkers, then complain.
...for a company not doing very well. I am the lowest paid employee at my company. ie: all of my employees get paid more than I do. The company has no profits. Sometimes I don't even get a paycheck. Sometimes part of payroll gets put on my personal VISA. Welcome to owning your own business. Imagine how you'd feel in this position, to discover that some of your employees were taking advantage of the situation, by not showing up and getting someone else to clock in? I have an employee who habitually shows up an hour late, takes 2 hour lunches, and leaves when the clock strikes 5:00. Yet complains when his cow-orker, who does the same work, gets paid more. Yeah, I love most of my employees. They do terrific work and I pay them as much as I can afford. But I'd implement whatever I could to keep them in line if they were taking advantage of me.
I think the basic point is, if it can identify -- and thus record -- me as an individual, it can be modified to store that information. I, for one, do not ascribe massive malicious intent to the large majority of employers (I used to run my own business, with fantastic employees whom I wish I could have paid more). However, there's no end to the innovative ways in which raw data can, and will, be mined.
... Houston, for arbitrary purposes. Naturally, Administration will, and should, investigate. Do they have a batch of bad readers? They need to find out.
Suppose, for instance, that McDonald's Corp. notices that it begins having an unusually high palm reader error rate with a group of franchises near a major urban area
Now suppose that nothing is found to be wrong with the readers. The only noticeable anomaly is that for certain employees, their palm map seems to be shrinking slightly. Turns out that these employees are losing weight.
Now suppose that news reports begin to surface of an upswing of HIV infections in the Houston area.
So now McDonald's has a serious dilemma. They have an identifiable subgroup of employees who prepare food, who use sharp kitchen implements, who may be infected with HIV. Corporate has no reason to suspect this other than their clock-in reports, but they have to act on it. This is begging for a lawsuit (either for violating the 4th Amendment rights of their employees, or by recklessly endangering the lives of their customers, or for decreasing shareholder value by sitting on the information and doing nothing).
It's not black and white, by any means.
I've read probably about half the >= +2 comments, and I saw a lot of them bitching about "reducing the employee to a string of numbers". I'm not sure what company these folks work for (or if they even work), but guess what? You already are a string of numbers to most places.
:) (And for anybody that cares, I'm all for privacy)
Take your job for example. What's the easiest way to keep one employee straight from another one? Assign some type of unique identification to each one. The easiest uniqie ID thus far has been a number...you don't run out of them!
Now, you have to keep in mind that this number is really only used on the backend systems...the payroll system, the employee benefits system, the HR system. You don't see employee #57823 greet you with "Hi, 23884!" do you? If you, please stop reading now, and find a new job. Your co-workers are freaks.
And metrics? Yeah, they're important. It's important for a company (or at least most companies) to make money, correct? So you need to know where you are spending your money to figure out how much you're gonna have left. One component of this is, you guessed it, finding out how much you're paying your employees! Now these hourly folks, you don't want them clocking each other in when they're not actually on the job, or otherwise finding a way to cheat the system (disclaimer: all systems can be cheated in some way)? In other words, getting paid for time they didn't work? Of course not. Would you pay the plumber for time he wasn't actually working on your clogged toilet? Pay the auto mechanic for time he wasn't working on somebody else's car? Pay the web monkey for time he wasn't marking up a webpage? No. You're not going to waste money.
So you're going to have your bosses, or at least the accountants in your company, run numbers to find out where the money's going. And this kind of thing isn't new, it's not some metrics trend, it's been going on for quite awhile now.
What about some other places? Do you think that store cares to know your name? The big one you buy your clothes at? Of course not, what possible use does that serve them? The mom and pop shops might, but they can afford to, that's their allure. But the larger shops aren't in the business of knowing the names of all their customers, they're in the business of providing you with a large selection of products to purchase. The larger entities in society don't care to know your name. There's no reason to know your name.
Yes, it is true, you are a number to them. Yes, they can probably track you and find out that "Customer #349374 likes to purchase grapes, red t-shirts, and fishing magazines, so we need to market product X to them". They can probably match this stuff to your home address and begin mailing you circulars.
But that's more to do with privacy which isn't going to be touched on here
--mh
The device they are using doesn't scan the palm, it takes some geometric measurements and stores it in a local memory bank. The company that makes it is Locknetics or Recognition Systems which is owned by Ingersoll Rand. Here's a PDF on the device. Handkey Reader The user actually has to enter a pin number first so it locate the proper memory bank to find the geometric template. Or this can be done with a card reader also.
Everybody who works in a fish processing plant or fast food joint will essentially get a chance to shake hands. I hope they washed after using the john.
I thought this story was about fast-food workers, not teachers. Since when are these people underpaid and undervalued? They may not make very much money, and they may have to work a lot of hours and do mundane tasks, but what VALUE do they really offer to society? Not that they don't deserve respect for the job they perform, but they would not be anywhere in the top 100 undervalued workers. Not every job has the same value in our society. Our society rewards some pretty ridiculous jobs in our society, and rewards some only a fraction of their true value, but fast food workers are not one of those.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
A better example is the issue of doing something that is morally (but not legally) wrong. You're having an affair with someone across town. The cameras see you and identify you. You have now been placed at the scene. Your wife suspects you and files for a divorce. The records then prove that you were unfaithful and the judge gives her a much bigger settlement.
Another example: you go to a church that prohibits the consumption of alcohol, or better, work for an employer that does. You go to a club to see a band that's playing. Sure, that isn't evidence that you were drinking, but if someone doesn't like you and decides to lie and say that you did... well, they now have a means of obtaining proof that you were there that they otherwise likely would not have had.
Outside a court of law, circumstantial evidence can be very hurtful. If you lost your job over it, sure, there would be lawsuits. Your employer could, however, try to make it sufficiently uncomfortable that you would leave on your own.
And the list goes on.
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I really have to ask 'what?' on this one, as a person who has worked at timeclocked locations and had to carry around a stupid card all the time to check in/out (a card I often misplaced, since it had to be easily removable to swipe), when I read this article I thought to myself 'cool that's a great idea, and nice thing for the employees'. Yet there are dozens of posts about possible security concerns?
If your emplyee wants your fingerprint for some illicit purpose, they can get you to handle a glass object and lift it later. Heck, they could probablly just plain ASK for your fingerprint 'in connection with a series of food store thefts' and you'd hand it over without a second thought (since you diden't steal any food), or perhaps after a second thought, but that thought being 'it's not worth loosing my job over it'.
So if it's that easy to get your fingerprint, what has the instalation of a biometric reader really done? It's made life easier on the emplyees, who no longer have to carry around a stupid card- BUT it's also made life harder on the employees who cheat the system by getting there buddy to clock them in early.
Besides if your so terminally afaraid of your fingerprints being stolen, why don't YOU (the theoritical emplyee of mcdonnalds who dosen't like his hand being scanned) insist on something else being scanned, like your lucky hat, or somesuch. Something tells me they woulden't care, but they might check to make sure you don't get your buddy to check you in a LOT (which they have the right to do). Also I'm sure they woulden't care if you wore a glove during the scan (just make sure you allwase have that glove, and don't go crying to mannagment the day you forget it).
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